The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1887-12-13
EYES OF THE BEE.
Structures Whose Completely IL Difncult Of
Comprehension.


Comprehension.
Any one who will take the trouble TO
examine with lens the head of o bee
will see on either side the large, round
ed compound eye, and on the forehead
or vertex three bright little simple eyes.
The latter are, as their name implies.
comparatively simple in structure, each
with single lens. But the compound
eyes have complex structure. Exter-
nally the surface is seen to be divided
up into a great number of hexagonal
areas, each of which is called facet,
and forms little lens. Of these the
queen bee has on each side nearly 5000,
the worker some 5000 and the drone
upward of $4,000. Beneath each facet
is crystalline cone, a so-called nerve
rod, and other structures. too complex
to be here described, which pass inward
toward the brain. twill be seen, then.
that the so-called compound eye with
its thousands of facets, its thousands of
crystalline cones, its thousands of
"neryc rods" and other elements, is a
structure of no little complexity. The
question now arises: Is il one structure
or many? Is it an eye or an aggregate
of eyesg To this question the older
naturalists answered cOnfidently--an
aggregate. And a simple experiment
seems to warrant this conclusion. Pu-
get, quoted in Goldsmith's Animated
Nature" adapted the facets of the eye
Of a f-pardon me, fair reader, of
sphanipterous insect of the genus Pu-
lex-so as to see objects through it
under the microscope. "a soldier who
was thus seen appeared like an army
of pigmies, for while it multiplied
it also diminished the object; the
arch of a bridge exhibited spectacle
more magnificent than human skill
could perform. and the flame of a cam
die seemed the illumination of thou
sands of lamps" Although Cheshire.
in his book on the bee, adopts this
view and supports it by reference to
. similar experiment, it numbers to
day but few supporters One is tempt
ed to marvel at the ability of the drone
to coordinate $4,000 separate images
into a single distinct object Picture
the confusion of images of one who
had slipped too freely of the sweet but
delusive dregs of the punch bowl!
Under similar circumstances human
folk are reported to see double. Think
of the appalling condition of an inebri-
ate drone! Those who believe the
facetted eye to be one organ with many
parts, contend that each facet and its
underlying structures give, not COM
plete image of the external object as a
whole, but the image of a single point
of that object. Thus there is formed,
by the juxtapositiOn of contiguous
points, stippled image or an image
i'm mosaic. Hence this view is
known as Muller's mosaic hypothesis.
Lowne has experimental with fine
glass threads arranged like the cones
and nerve rods of the bees eve, and
finds that (even when they are not
surrounded by pigment, as are the
elements in an insects eye) all oblique
rays are got rid of by numerous refec-
tions and the interference due TO the
different lengths of the rays. Some
modification of the mosaic hypothesis
is now generally adopted. and DIR.
Hickson has recently worked out with
great care the structure of the optic
tract which lies between the crystalline
cones and the rain.-MtVray's Maya
zine.